Sound Design

Our sound design project was one that going in, I really had to idea what we would be able to accomplish. However, as this particular class is forcing me to think in more abstract ways, when me and Ally met up in the lab I knew that we would be able to create something that could be really freaking cool. The hardest part of this sound design project was divorcing myself from just trying to tell a story with sound. The challenge was to focus more conceptually rather than narratively, to have distinct parts of the project, but not form a typical three act structure. This wasn't the easiest thing to do for me honestly, it kinda hurt my brain a little. 

Ally simply asked me what our title made me think of. "The underside: padded like a wolf's foot" immediately made me think of course of wolves walking around in the woods, and for some reason whenever I envision wolves I always think of Alaska, someplace snowy and cold. It also made me think of The Grey (great movie, Liam Neeson is a badass) and the hopeless sort of environment. Cold, unforgiving, hostile. The images that we were coming up with I felt we could paint a picture with sound, and put the listener in that space, and make them experience the same kind of things we were trying to convey. I also considered how dark and spooky the woods can be, and thought also of how people and the machines that they create can also penetrate this space. So the concept quickly evolved into running through a haunted forest with machines and abrasive noises. 

We began to choose sound that we felt were appropriate and fell into the type of environment  the we were trying to create and after a few hours, it had all come together! I didn't want this project just to be a jumbled mess of abrasive noise, I wanted it to feel like something. A less is more approach to this project felt right to us, and the first time we listened to it through the headphones we were blown away. Sitting in the editing lab, in the dark at midnight listening to our project and how incredibly creepy and powerful it was turned out to be quite the experience. I take away from this that sound effects can really put you into a whole new world, and painting a picture with this sound turned out to be a really, really fun experience.